Prayer is an expression of who we are...We are a living incompleteness. We are a gap, an emptiness that calls for fulfillment. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Prayer and love are really learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and your heart turns to stone. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To worship our false selves is to worship nothing. And the worship of nothing is hell. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
I myself am part of the weather and part of the climate and part of the place … It is certainly part… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Prayer is not so much a way to find God as a way of resting in him...who loves us, who is near… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and the heart has turned to stone. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The sky is my prayer, the birds are my prayer, the wind in the trees is my prayer, for God is all… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
To be alone by being part of the universe-fitting in completely to an environment of woods and silence and peace. Everything you… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We do not want to be beginners [at prayer]. but let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The true contemplative is one who has discovered the art of finding leisure even in the midst of his work, by working… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
We do not pray for the sake of praying, but for the sake of being heard. We do not pray in order… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
Every man becomes the image of the God he adores. He whose worship is directed to a dead thing becomes dead. He… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
You will never be able to have perfect interior peace and recollection unless you are detached even from the desire of peace… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The only thing to seek in contemplative prayer is God; and we seek Him successfully when we realize that we cannot find… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
When I am liberated by silence, when I am no longer involved in the measurement of life, but in the living of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Far from ruining the purity of solitary prayer, petition guards and preserves that purity. The solitary, more than anyone else, is always… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It is a kind of pride to insist that none of our prayers should ever be petitions for our own needs: for… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“The ever-changing reality in the midst of which we live should awaken us to the possibility of an uninterrupted dialogue with God.… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The whole function of the life of prayer is, then, to enlighten and strengthen our conscience so that it not only knows… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The simplicity that all this presupposes is not easy to attain. I find that my life constantly threatens to become complex and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
The lights of prayer that make us imagine we are beginning to be angels are sometimes only signs that we are finally… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“We must approach our meditation realizing that 'grace,' 'mercy,' and 'faith' are not permanent inalienable possessions which we gain by our efforts… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Whether you teach or live in the cloister or nurse the sick, whether you are in religion or out of it, married… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“I once thought that would be the consummation of all joy—to be united by a bond of love—to be lost in His… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Hence the aim of meditation, in the context of Christian faith, is not to arrive at an objective and apparently 'scientific' knowledge… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“There is a 'movement' of meditation, expressing the basic 'paschal' rhythm of the Christian life, the passage from death to life in… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Prayer does not blind us to the world, but it transforms our vision of the world, and makes us see it, all… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“I hear You saying to me: "I will give you what you desire. I will lead you into solitude. I will lead… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“It does not even seem to enter our minds that there might be some incongruity in praying to the God of peace,… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Leaving Things Alone (excerpt) You train your eye and your vision lusts after colour. You train your ear, and you long for… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
My God, I pray better to you by breathing. I pray better to you by walking than by talking. — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
None of our prayers should ever be petitions for our own needs: for this is only another subtle way of trying to… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
In meditative prayer, one thinks and speaks not only with the mind and lips, but in a certain sense with one's whole… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
What is the use of praying if at the very moment of prayer, we have so little confidence in God that we… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
It's a risky thing to pray and the danger is that our very prayers get between God and us. The great thing… — Thomas Merton Copy Share Image
“Let no one hope to find in contemplation an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt. On the contrary, the deep, inexpressible certitude… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
If nothing that can be seen can either be God or represent Him to us as He is, then to find God we must… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
It is almost impossible to overestimate the value of true humility and its power in the spiritual life. For the beginning of humility is… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
We are not perfectly free until we live in pure hope. For when our hope is pure, it no longer trusts exclusively in human… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
The desire to kill is like the desire to attack another with an ingot of red -hot iron: I have to pick up the… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
To enter into the realm of contemplation one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance to a… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
The mission of Christian humility in social life is not merely to edify, but to keep minds open to many alternatives. The rigidity of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs gestated in… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
Things that are good are good, and if one is responding to that goodness one is in contact with a truth from which one… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
“The wisdom of the flesh is a judgement that the ordinary ends of our natural appetites are the goods to which the whole of… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
I will no longer wound myself with the thoughts and questions that have surrounded me like thorns: that is a penance You do not… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
If you write for God you will reach many men and bring them joy. If you write for men--you may make some money and… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
“Contemplation means rest, suspension of activity, withdrawal into the mysterious interior solitude in which the soul is absorbed in the immense and fruitful silence… — Thomas Merton Copy Share
![“We do not want to be beginners [at prayer]. but let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything but beginners, all our life!” quote by Thomas Merton](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/cec/thomas-merton-231_beginners_we-do-not-want-to-be-beginners-at-prayer_583117.jpg)
